Rotary steam-engine



MTE sTA'LEs PATENT onirica.

J. M. COLMAN AND T. TURTN, OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

ROTARY STEAM-ENGIN E.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 15,281, dated July 8, 1856.

i other Fluid; and we do hereby declare that the followingis a full,clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to theaccompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which-Figure l, is a vertical section of a rotary steam engine constructedaccording to our invention, taken in a plane perpendicular to the axis.Fig. .@,is a vertical section of the same in a plane passing through theaxis. Fig. 3, is a face view of the cam, by which the oscillatingabutments are operated.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the severalfigures.

A, is the cylinder of the engine which is bored truly, but has cavitiesa, a, al, al and a2, a2, formed in its interior to constitute seats forthree oscillating abutments, B, B1, B2, said seats being severally ofcylindrical form and struck from equidistant axes parallel with the axisof the cylinder and said axes standing beyond or outside of the innerperiphery of the cylinder. The oscillating abutments are severally ofthe form of their seats, consisting each of a cylinder with a portioncut out by an arc described from the center of the cylinder A, to form aconcave, so that when in one position, as shown by B, Fig. l, it exactlyfills the seat and forms a solid continuation of the interior of thecylinder. These abutments are precisely of the same length as theinterior of the cylinder and are provided with central journals b, b,which fit in suitable bearings provided for them in the cylinder headsC, C1, and they are faced at one end to fit to the interior of thecylinder head C, and at the other to fit an adjustable head C* whichfits to the interior cylinder and abutment seats, within the head C1.The seat of each abutment is provided with a spring packing piece c,fitting to the cylindrical `portion of the abutment, to prevent steampassing around the abutment and through the seat, and each abutment hasa packing piece, d, fitted to a cavity formed in its concave'face nearwhere the said face unites with the cylindrical part which fits theseat.

D, is the rotary piston of the engine, a portion of whose periphery orperimeter, e,

e1 Fig. 1, constitutes a part of a cylinder to lit the bored interior ofthe cylinder A, while an'opposite portion f, j", constitutes a part of asmaller cylinder and these two cylindrical portions are united by easyregular curves e, f, and el, f, which are struck each from a separatecenter at any convenient distance from the axis of the piston. Thepiston, it will thus be seen is struck from three centers. The length ofthe curve or arc c, e, is equal to the length of the face of oneabutment and of the space between that and the next one, as will be seenby reference to Fig. l. The curve or arc f, f, is a correspondingportion of a circle, though of less length, as allowance has to be madefor its smaller radius. The rotary piston is faced at its ends to fit upto the interior of the cylinder heads C and 0*, and is secured to ashaft E, which is fitted to work in bearings in the cylinder heads, C,C1. One end of the shaft E, carries the hollow cam G, which is shown inFig. 3, and also in dotted outline in Fig. l, the interior of which camcorresponds in form exactly with the periphery or perimeter of therotary piston though it may be larger than the piston, as is shown inFig. l. Each of the oscillating abutments has attached to one of itsjournals outside the cylinder, an arm g, carrying a roller 71 to bearagainst the inner periphery of the cam, and the cam is so arranged onthe shaft E, relatively to the piston, and the arms g, g, g, are of suchlength relatively tothe distances of the faces of the packing pieces CZ,(Z, d, from the centers of the abutments, that as the piston and camrotate, the abutments are caused by the action of the cam on the rollersL, it, L, and arms g, g, g, to oscillate, so that the faces of thepacking pieces d, el, d follow and keep it in close contact with thesurface of the piston.

I, is the-induction steam chamber consisting of an annular cavity formedin the cylinder head C, around a hub at one end of the piston.

I-I is the steam pipe coming from boiler to the chamber. I.

J', is a passage leading through the piston from the chamber I, as shownin Fig. 2, having a number of orifices z', z', z', opening in theperiphery or perimeter of the piston at the point or longitudinal linec.

K, is the eduction steam chamber consisting of an annular cavity formedin the cylinder head C1, around the shaft E.

the

L, is the education pipe leading from the chamber K.

M is a passage leading from the chamber K, through the piston and havinga number of orifices 73, 7a, leading to the periphery or perimeter ofthe piston at the point e.

N, is a passage similar to M, leading from the chamber K, through thepiston and having a number of orifices Z, Z, leading'v to the peripheryor perimeter of the piston at the bottom of the curve e, f, the distancebetween the said orifices and those k, 7c being equal to the width of anabut-ment.

P, P, are set screws screwing t-hrough the cylinder head C1, against theinner adjustable head (1*, to force the said head up close to the endsof the piston head and the abutments and force the piston head andabutments close up to t-he cylinder head C. The head C being adjustableto compensate for the end wear of the piston and abutments in thecylinder enables all other packing to be dispensed with.

Q is a spherical head keyed or otherwise firmly secured to the shaft E,to be received in a spherical cavity or seat made within the piston thusforming a ball and socket connection. The object of this is to enablethe piston to adjust itself to the cylinder in case of the shaft wearingitself outof line. To admit the spherical head, the piston requires tobe made with a movable piece F, see Fig. Q, and half the seat of thespherical head Q, is made in the body D, of the piston and the otherhalf in the piece F. Provision is also made for keeping the whole lengthof the packing pieces (Z, CZ, of the abutments in close contact with thepiston notwithstanding any want of parallelism between the cylinder,abutments and the piston, by making the backs of the packing pieces ofarched form endwise so that they may be capable of rockingto a limitedeX- tent in the backs of the grooves in which they are contained.

m, m, fm., are springs firmly secured to the journals Z9, b, ZJ, of theabutments close to the arms g, g, g. The arms g, g, g, are loose on thejournals and provided wit-h set screws a, n, n, which are screwed upagainst the springs m, m, m, to set the rollers z., h, h, out againstthe interior of the cam G. This arrangement enables the arms to beadjusted, to compensate for the wear of the piston, the abutmentpacking, the rollers and the cam.

The operation of the engine is illustrated in Fig. l, and by the aid ofthat figure I will proceed to describe it. The steam entering theinduction chamber I and passage J, constantly issues from the openingsz', 27, into the cylinder, as shown by red arrows and acts between oneof the abutments and the face, e, f, of the piston, thereby giving thepiston a rotary motion in the direction of the black` arrow. The steamwhich has already acted and ceased to act upon the piston escapesthrough the passages 7c and Z to the eduction chamber K, and, asindicated by other red arrows, to the pipe L. The abutments areseverally caused by the cam, in regular rotation, to assume a positioncorresponding to that of B, as represented in Fig. l, as the prominentpart e, e, of the piston passes them to move into the cylinder and thesteam acts between each abutment and the piston, in turn.

That we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

1. The engine composed of the rotary pist0n D, struck from threecenters, as described, and the three oscillating abutments, B, B1, B2,with packing pieces at one end of their concave faces, arranged andoperating in connection with the piston in a cylinder A in the mannersubstantially as herein described.

2. Fitting the rotary piston to its shaft with a ball and socketconnection, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

J. M. COLMAN. THOMAS TURTON. Vitnesses ALBERT SMITH, J AMES HABE, Jr.

